A GOOD END TO AN INTERESTING YEAR

The latest polls for ICM’s monthly survey for the Guardian - by far the longest polling series in the UK - has put the Conservative Party back at the 40 per cent level that we were last at in August. The shares, with changes on the last ICM survey at the end of November are: CON 40 (+1): LAB 32 (+1): LD 18 (-2).

If translated to next year's elections, this certainly would be good news for the Party. However, we mustn't be complacent in any way at all as there are still some people in Aberconwy who think that Plaid Cymru are a viable alternative to Labour, despite the recent 'love in' between the two over the Assembly budget.

I believe the real issue at the next election is about choice on how we spend the £14 billion of Assembly funding. Certainly when it came to the budget, we didn't see any decision made about cutting uneccesary bureaucracy and putting more funding into frontline services. Many people in Llandudno have already raised this issue and questioned why both parties did not give any more funding to ensuring services were retained at Llandudno Hospital. We are in for an interesting four months of campaigning.